Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Cate Blanchett Talks About The Future

Cate Blanchett and her husband Andrew Upton are one of the great theatre success stories. Not only has their marriage remained strong but their ability to work together has been a spectacular success for the Sydney Theatre Company.

With two major plays under their belts-A Streetcar Named Desire and Uncle Vanya, both of which wowed audiences in Australia and the USA where hard bitten critics on the Washington Post and the New York Times heaped praise upon the productions, the pair have also attracted major sponsors to the struggling theatre company including fashion designer Giorgio Armani.

They have just announced the 2012 season and there are some surprises in store with some old favourites re-surfacing including Dylan Thomas's Under Milkwood opening in May with the mellifluous tones of actor Jack Thompson.

Jacqueline McKenzie

In January Peter Evans presents a bold new production of George Bernard Shaw’s enduring classic of wicked wordplay Pygmalion with Jessica Marais playing Eliza Doolittle.

Two of Australia’s most respected actors, Pamela Rabe and Hugo Weaving ( who acted in Uncle Vanya) play the deliciously deviant Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses while the Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre's Sex With Strangers opens in September with Jacqueline McKenzie.
You can book tickets here.

Cate and Andrew also spoke to Richard Glover on the ABC's Drivetime show about their theatre work and the recent attacks upon Cate when she openly backed a Climate Change tax. Cate also revealed her first acting inspiration was seeing the great Melbourne stage actor Frank Thring (left) on stage and thought that if she could get away with playing Bob Dylan, she thought she could play Thring in a biopic about his life.

Irreverent/ Irrelevant facts :
# The Shuttle attended the premiere of Don't Look Now and sat behind Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton. They chatted all the way through the film until Cate appeared on screen.
# Frank Thring's father Frank W.Thring invented the clapperboard, still used in film making today.
# Frank Thring appeared in numerous Australian movies including Ned Kelly (1970), Skippy (1968) and MadMax (1985) but was in demand for Hollywood costume epics where he acted in El Cid, The Vikings, Hercules Returns, King Of Kings where plays Herod and Ben Hur where he played Pontius Pilate.

Here is a clip recorded not long before Frank died in 1994 with him at his best :